Personal computer systems in general and IBM personal computers in particular have attained widespread use for providing computer power to many segments of today's modern society. A personal computer system can usually be defined as a desk top, floor standing, or portable microcomputer that consists of a system unit having a single system processor, a display monitor, a keyboard, one or more diskette drives, a fixed disk storage, and an optional printer. One of the usual characteristics of these systems has been the use of a motherboard or system planar to electrically connect these components together. These systems are designed primarily to give independent computing power to a single user and are inexpensively priced for purchase by individuals or small businesses. Examples of such personal computer systems are IBM's PERSONAL COMPUTER AT and IBM's PERSONAL SYSTEM/2 Models 25, 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 95.
These systems can be classified into two general families. The first family, usually referred to as Family I Models, uses a bus architecture exemplified by the IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER AT and other "IBM compatible" machines. The second family, referred to as Family II Models, uses IBM's MICRO CHANNEL bus architecture exemplified by IBM's PERSONAL SYSTEM/2 Models 50 through 95.
Beginning with the earliest personal computer system of the Family I models, such as the IBM Personal Computer, it was recognized that software compatibility would be of utmost importance. In order to achieve this goal, an insulation layer of system resident code, also referred to as "microcode," was established between the hardware and software. This code provided an operational interface between a user's application program/operating system and the device to relieve the user of the concern about the characteristics of hardware devices. Eventually, the code developed into a BASIC input/output system (BIOS), for allowing new devices to be added to the system, while insulating the application program from the peculiarities of the hardware. The importance of BIOS was immediately evident because it freed a device driver from depending on specific device hardware characteristics while providing the device driver with an intermediate interface to the device. Because BIOS was an integral part of the system and controlled the movement of data in and out of the system processor, it was resident on the system planar and was shipped to the user in a read only memory (ROM). For example, BIOS in the original IBM Personal Computer occupied 8K of ROM resident on the planar board.
As new models of the personal computer family were introduced, BIOS had to be updated and expanded to include new hardware and I/O devices. As could be expected, BIOS started to increase in memory size. For example, with the introduction of the IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER AT, BIOS grew to require 32K bytes of ROM.
Today, with the development of new technology, personal computer systems of the Family II models are growing even more sophisticated and are being made available to consumers more frequently. Because the technology is rapidly changing and new I/O devices are being added to the personal computer systems, modification to the BIOS has become a significant problem in the development cycle of the personal computer system.
For instance, with the introduction of the IBM PERSONAL SYSTEM/2 computer system with MICRO CHANNEL architecture, a significantly new BIOS, known as Advanced BIOS, or ABIOS, was developed. However, to maintain software compatibility, BIOS from the Family I models had to be included in the Family II models. The Family I BIOS became known as Compatibility BIOS or CBIOS. However, as previously explained with respect to the IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER AT system, only 32K bytes of ROM were resident on the planar board. Fortunately, the system could be expanded to 96K bytes of ROM. Unfortunately, because of system constraints, this turned out to be the maximum capacity available for BIOS. Luckily, even with the addition of ABIOS, ABIOS and CBIOS could still squeeze into 96K of ROM. However, only a small percentage of the 96K ROM area remained available for expansion. With the addition of future I/O devices, CBIOS and ABIOS will eventually run out of ROM space. Thus, new I/O technology will not be able to be integrated easily within CBIOS and ABIOS.
As a result of these problems, and of the desire to make modification in Family II BIOS as late as possible in the development cycle, it has become necessary to off load portions of BIOS from the ROM. Because marketability and consumer acceptance of personal computer systems appear to require the ability to add new I/O devices and to minimize cost, it should be appreciated that easy modification of Family II models' BIOS is a substantial factor in achieving success in accordance with this invention. Thus, there exists a need for a method and apparatus which permits portions of BIOS to be stored on a direct access storage device such as a fixed disk or on the diskette drive. These portions can then be easily modified and loaded into the personal computer system when required.
Finally, it is difficult to replace the system processor, ROM and associated components with changed (e.g., upgraded) components when all of these components are fixed on a single motherboard or planar board. Processor cards have been suggested in which a microprocessor and related components are mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) that can be plugged into a mating connector on a planar board. However, it has become desirable to develop other designs in view of thirty-two bit wide data and address paths employed in some personal computer systems.